Field of a Thousand Stones
by Witchy Bitch
Summary: A chance sighting sends Deidara in to the past to relive memories he thought he had locked away. One-shot/language/fluff


Special thanks goes to SectumSemprae for making this one-shot for me. I hope you guys enjoy reading it.

italics means past

- that mark means present

* * *

><p><strong> <span>Field of a Thousand Stones<span>**

The clay was relaxing in his hands. Deidara rolled it into a log before folding it again. The longer he mixed it, the better the minerals in it went together. A secret Iwagakure no doubt regretted teaching him during his years in the Explosion Corps.

They had been stuck in the hideout for four weeks, waiting for Hidan and Kakuzu to return. Supposedly, they were out doing reconnaissance on where the Tailed Beasts all were… but knowing them, they had been sidetracked. Between Hidan's bloodlust and Kakuzu's greed… Fleetingly Deidara wondered which Akatsuki members represented the other seven deadly sins. He supposed he could qualify as 'Envy'… not that he liked admitting it to himself. He glanced at Itachi and his lip curled a little. 'Damn you, Uchiha,' he thought.

If only the Akatsuki hadn't recruited him. He had so much he wanted to do more of his art independently. He had been quite well-known for his art, back in the day…

What would have happened if he had stayed in his village? Deidara scoffed; they were holding him back. They would have only squandered his potential as an artist. Nevertheless, the longer his mind lingered on Iwagakure, the more his scowl faded, and his eyes softened with memory. If he were still there, then maybe he'd still be with his girl… As the thought slipped through his mind, as well as her face, he felt a deep tinge of regret in his heart…

_Rocks covered the meadow. The sun was warm on Deidara's face and he closed his blue eyes contentedly. Iwagakure looked so much like a cluster of tiny anthills from up here, on top of one of the many plateaus that surrounded his hometown. It felt good to get up here and get away from everything, especially in this magical Field of a Thousand Stones._

_Someone stirred against his chest. He looked down with a smile._

_"Getting comfortable, Luna-chan hm?"_

_The sleeping girl didn't answer. Her long blue hair fanned out across Deidara's chest. The young man chuckled before closing his eyes again. Days like these were the best. They had spent the early morning climbing up here, and then the late morning walking around the meadow, admiring the different stones they came across: amethyst, serpentine, limestone, chert… Deidara wondered where they all came from. Maybe he would ask Luna when she woke up…_

_A book lay just to her side, the pages drifting lazily in the breeze. One of the pages touched her hand, and her fingers curled. Even in sleep, she couldn't be kept away from her precious books._

_The grass rustled slightly. Deidara sat up suddenly. Someone was coming!_

_He groaned. "Why, hm?" He and Luna never got any peace! Now whoever it was would surely find them and tease them for their soft display of affection—_

_a slender arm rose suddenly, and with a small spark, the air shimmered. Deidara blinked. A short old man – his sensei! – came into view, staring thoughtfully at the ground. He was five feet away! And yet—he passed by, mumbling something to himself about quartz, without even looking in their direction. Like they weren't even there._

_Suddenly Deidara's head was pulled down and he was face-to-face with granite grey eyes, smiling quietly up at him._

_"You put up a genjutsu, didn't you hm?" he grinned._

_Luna put a soft finger to his lips. "Shhh…"_

-  
>"FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!" Deidara's eyes snapped open from their daydreaming. Hidan had just entered the hideout, doubled over in pain. As the other eight members watched, a slight steam seemed to come out of his mouth. The devil-worshipper ripped off his robe, revealing a horrifying sight; his left arm was discolored, green and purple in some places. Kakuzu came trudging in behind him, huffing.<p>

"I offered to carry him, but the stubborn bastard wanted to walk by himself—"

"Fuck, what are you pansies standing around for?" Hidan bellowed. "Fucking help me!"

"Report, Kakuzu! What happened?"

"I'm not sure. I didn't get there until after it had already happened."

Pein took a long glance at Hidan's arm. "Looks like poison." Immediately Sasori came up, syringe in hand.

"DON'T YOU COME NEAR ME WITH THAT, YOU- AAAARGH!" Hidan howled as Sasori jabbed him with the needle. The rest of the Akatsuki continued with their work – weapons' preparations mostly – without so much as a flinch. Hidan's potty mouth and body horrors were nothing new.

"Stupid blue-haired dolly bitch…"

"Sounds like your type, Hidan," Sasori quipped, and the rest of the Akatsuki suppressed their snickers.

Hidan jerked his head around. "What was that, Sasori? Did you want me to sacrifice your little puppet self to Jashin-sama?" He glared at Deidara. "What are you looking at, blondie?!"

"Geez," Deidara grumbled, returning to mixing his clay, "What got in his bonnet hm?"

"A poison expert…" Sasori murmured as he examined the blood he had just extracted. Hidan groaned. "It won't kill you, of course, not with your immortality… But anyone else…" He turned away to begin working on the antidote; the sooner they fixed Hidan up, the sooner he would stop screaming his curses.

"Where was the skirmish, Hidan?" Pein intoned.

"It was on the border between Earth and Wave. I was just going over there to get a little look-see at the—"

"He was looking for someone to sacrifice."

"Shut up Kakuzu!"

"He should have chosen someone with an actual bounty on his head. At least then we could have made some money…"

"So who was it who attacked you?" Pein interrupted their bickering. "And why?"

Hidan sighed dramatically. "I don't think she knows about Akatsuki, if that's what you're asking. I was about to make a sacrifice… then she got in my way. I thought I'd done the ritual but then the sacrifice disappeared. Bitch put up a genjutsu, and by the time I managed to dispel it, she'd gotten me with her poison. Didn't say a damn word either. If only I'd gotten her with my scythe—"

"So just a bystander, then," Pein sighed. "Nobody who matters."

"Yeah, yeah… Long blue hair, grey eyes… I caught a quick glimpse of her when I swung my scythe at her… She had to drop the genjutsu to get away. Not a short-ranged fighter, that's for fucking sure."

"Wait a second," Deidara cut in. "Blue hair, grey eyes… specializes in genjutsu and poison hm?"

"Yeah. Why, you know her?"

Deidara didn't say anything but his one visible eye widened. 'That sounds like… Luna.'

_The sunlight seemed duller somehow. The air was rippling again._

_"Ugh… You know, Luna-chan, being in here is making me a little seasick hm."_

_He felt soft hands on his shoulders. "Just relax…" her voice was soft, like the rushing of the wind._

_She began to brush his hair, her slender fingers running soothingly through the golden strands. As she did, their surroundings began to change. Deidara looked around in surprise. It felt as though the air were lighter, lighter… They were rising off the ground!_

_The sun set rapidly, bleeding orange into the sky, and Deidara and Luna rose above it all. Into the cold night sky, into the heavens and beyond Earth country… Surrounded by stars._

_Deidara watched in amazement as the stars seemed to spin and whirl around them. Then, one burst into flames and exploded, wild colors flashing out across the cosmos. More and more joined the first one, like so many flowers in the dark sky. Deidara stared in astonishment. They looked so much like his bombs. He turned his head a little and smiled at Luna over his shoulder. She smiled back with her eyes, which were the same clear grey as the moon._

_Then, Luna's hands stopped moving in his hair and rested. And quite suddenly they were back on Earth again._

_"I love your illusions, Luna-chan hm," he murmured, and he held his girl gently in his arms and kissed her over and over again, and she laughed softly and kissed him back. "I love YOU, Luna-chan hm…"_  
>-<p>

He had to be careful this close to his old village. Even under cover of night, surely there were guards with sharp eyes. He flew his giant clay bird through gaps in the mountains, peering down.

As he got closer, he released a handful of small clay insects to infiltrate the village.

For a long hour he sat, eyes upturned toward the full moon, waiting for his scouts to return.

'Was it her? Was Luna alive somehow? She couldn't be!' Deidara squeezed his eyes shut, willing the tears back, willing the fervent hope back—

_"Katsu!"_

BOOM! The school erupted into smoke and flames. Debris rained in the streets, people screaming. Deidara smiled through the smoke as he threw another bomb. It landed on the top of the library.

_"Katsu!"_

_BOOM! Books rained into the streets, fueling the fire. Bombs created by the new mouths in his hands as they lovingly licked and shaped and molded the exploding clay._

_His bird rose higher; wouldn't do for his ride to catch on fire. That would be one way to go out with a blast._

_More clay bombs rained down, fifty smaller ones, all set for a chain reaction. They landed on the streets and the bridge between the village and the main gates of Iwa._

_"KATSU!"_

_It was beautiful. It was beautiful! He could watch the explosions for hours._

_"ART IS A BANG! YEAH!"_

_He gleefully watched as the fire spread. When he threw his next bomb into the weapons store, the colors from the blast were spectacular. No more gunpowder for those explosive tags. Nothing was as superb as his clay! He had gotten the minerals from all over the mountains to make it, using only the finest caliber, stockpiling. And here was his art, unveiled for all to see!_

_Fleetingly he wondered how Luna would feel when she found out. If she found out. She was still out of the village. Maybe he could find her before she returned to the village, intercept her so she would never learn the news. And then they could escape together. She might even think that he had saved her from the destruction of the village, if he swept her away on his bird._

_His blue eyes sparkled as he watched the roads leading into the village carefully. No sign of her yet…_

_He had waited for her. For hours, days. Even as the village burned, he had hidden himself to wait for her return. When she didn't, he looked all over the surrounding lands, even going to the place where she had been sent on her mission. No sign of her anywhere. It scared him. Had she died on her mission? No. Not his Luna. Had he missed her somehow?_

_It was only weeks later, when the Iwa village erected a monument to the fallen, when Deidara realized his fatal error._

_Luna had finished her mission early, as expected with her talents. She had been in the village when Deidara had bombed it. Deidara had killed her!_

_And now her name was on the memorial stone. Forever._

Deidara sat up shivering in the cold night air. The memories were so vivid! He turned away from his old home and stood up. How foolish of him. He swiped a hand across his eye carelessly; Iwa ninja didn't cry. Of course it wasn't her. Hidan had been poisoned by someone else. He had been chasing a ghost.

The moonlight was pretty from this area of the meadow. It made her long blue hair look silver. It also caused the rocks to glow with an unearthly luminescence. Luna craned her head up. How many of these rocks had come from the great stone moon in the sky? She wished she had her astronomy book to see. Softly she fingered the grasses that tickled her knees.

An abrupt pain shot up the young woman's back, and she suppressed a groan. Three years later, and it still hadn't fully healed. Then again, Luna's specialty was in poisons, not in ointments.

It hurt less when the fabric wasn't scraping her skin. No one else was around, so it would be OK… Luna slipped off her tunic and let the cool evening breeze caress the huge burns on her back.

They were scars now. Only scars. But Deidara's clay had been special. Or maybe she secretly didn't want them to heal. They would always be a reminder to her of the love they had shared – a love that was now behind her.

"Why did you do it, Dei?" she wondered quietly. Unlike her ex-boyfriend, who was boisterous and high-energy, she had always been quiet, mellow. They balanced each other so well…

She picked up a piece of rusting basalt. There were some powerful chemicals in this rock, and they made for some potent chemicals. She thought of the scythe-wielding man she had poisoned earlier that day. What had he been doing, torturing that poor farmer? They weren't in times of war, so why the senseless attempted murder so close to her country's borders? Well, the murderer was probably dead by now, as he should be. Most people used toxins from animals to make their poisons; hers were special. She used rock chemicals to make hers. Something very different and hard for even a talented medic to figure out, until it was too late.

"I wonder what I would do if I saw you again, Deidara…" she pondered softly. This field always made her think of him. It had been… their place. "Would I prick you gently and poison you to death… Or would I embrace you and let you heal my wounds?" She refused to think he had meant to kill her. He didn't know she was home. He couldn't! But…

But he had tried to destroy their village. Why? Why would he do something like that?

"I'm an idiot," Deidara mused. "Well, if I leave right now, maybe I'll get back before the rest of Akatsuki knows I'm gone…"

His bird lifted off and flew low over the plateaus. Only the light of the moon and stars kept him from crashing into the jagged spires of stone all around.

He passed one particular plateau, and suddenly the glittering of a thousand jewels caught his eye. The bird landed softly and he stepped off. Nostalgia hit him hard. It was THEIR field.

He marveled at all the stones in it. How were they all still here? Surely someone would have come through to take them all by now. But no…

There was the big rock in the middle of the field, the one he used to nap on with Luna. Deidara gasped.

Someone was laying on it now.

She heard footsteps. Her wrist flicked upward instinctively to cast the illusion—

"Luna?"

She stopped. Absolutely stopped and sat up, her grey eyes widening. No, it couldn't be.

"Luna-chan? hm, it's me!"

It was him! Even in the dark she could see his long shiny blond hair, the hair she had stroked so many times. She could see his giddy smile as he approached her.

"It is—"

SLAP!

"OW!" Deidara's cry echoed across the field. His blue-haired ex-girlfriend glared at him sternly before whacking him again for good measure.

"What were you thinking, you idiot!? Blowing up the village, our home, and all our friends?! Well, Deidara, what do you have to say for yourself?!"

Deidara was shocked. His Luna had never spoken so much at one time. He wondered how much she had changed, if she was still… HIS Luna.

Abruptly, the girl threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. He could feel her soft breath trembling. Then, quite suddenly, both Deidara and Luna realized that she still wasn't wearing her tunic.

"Umm…" Luna quickly fumbled with it, and Deidara hid his blush. He frowned as he suddenly recalled how rough her back had been.

"Luna-chan," he whispered, putting a finger underneath her chin. She looked up shyly. "…What happened to your back hm?"

She lowered her eyes quickly. He stroked her doll-like face while his stomach flipped. "Did I do it?"

She nodded.

"Will you tell me…? And… can I make it up to you?"

She didn't hesitate at all. She nodded. Deidara's frown softened.

"I know you probably have a lot to tell me, and I want to hear all of it hm." The Akatsuki can wait.

She licked her lips. "I want to hear all about where you've been, and why… Why you did it."

"I'll tell you, Luna-chan… just so long as you don't disappear on me again. I couldn't stand to lose you twice."

Luna's eyes glowed; with a flick of her wrist, she covered them with a genjutsu. The two leaned back on the large rock to watch the stars and talk, knowing that even after all this time, their love had remained embedded like the most stubborn of stones.


End file.
